


No Alternative

by Llama1412



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Episode: s01e08 The Beginning of the End, Gen, Implied past underage sex.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-14
Updated: 2010-11-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama1412/pseuds/Llama1412
Summary: An alternative ending to 1.08. Arthur can't let the boy die.
Kudos: 7





	No Alternative

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on livejournal in 2010. Posted unedited.
> 
> Warning: Implied past underage sex

"Halt, or I'll run you through." Arthur spoke, drawing his blade and brandishing it threateningly at the figure in the Pendragon red cloak. "Show yourself."

The figure turned slowly to reveal Morgana's frightened face. "Let him go." She pleaded, "I beg you. He's just a child."

Arthur glanced down at the boy clutched protectively in her arms and did a double take. It couldn't be. He looked over his should at the guards. Everyone could see them, had witnessed Morgana's actions. He had no choice. "Restrain them," he spoke, turning away from the betrayed look on Morgana's face and the terrified one on the boy's.

He had no choice. He ordered the boy returned to the dungeons and Morgana brought before the king.

"All this time, you've been hiding the boy in my own palace. How could you betray me like this?" Uther demanded, the look on his face making it clear he was exerting great effort into restraining his temper.

"I would not see him executed." Morgana spoke defiantly, her gaze steady on Uther. If Arthur hadn't seen her previous fright, hadn't seen the way her hands were trembling now, he would think her fearless.

"I've treated you like a daughter. Is this how you repay me?"

Arthur stared at the floor as Morgana rallied with an answer appealing to the king's morality. He knew it wouldn't work. Uther was ruthless when it came to anything related to magic.

"He's a druid."

"Is that such a crime?"

"His kind would see me dead and you would help them!"

Arthur squeezed his eyes shut. Gods, they'd be lucky if they could get out of this without Morgana getting sent to the dungeons.

"Then punish me...but spare the boy. I beg you."

Uther paused, his glare palpable even from Arthur's confined sight of the floor. "Make arrangements for the boy to be executed tomorrow morning."

Arthur's head whipped up as Morgana marched after Uther shouting, "No! Please!" He'd known this would happen, known it was the only conclusion his father would come to, but gods, what did he do now?

"Do you hear me?" Uther shouted over Morgana's protestations. "I want him executed at dawn!"

"Yes, Father." Arthur nodded, eyes downcast. 'No,' his mind screamed. 'He's a child. We can't do this!'

Arthur pushed off the wall, ready to tactfully protest his father's orders when Uther backed Morgana against a chair, his hand clamped around her throat.

"Do not speak to me until you are ready to apologize for what you've done." Uther growled, pulling back to release her. Arthur hurried after him, sparing Morgana a brief glance to check that she was unharmed, only frightened.

"Perhaps imprisonment is a more suitable punishment for the boy." Arthur advised, struggling to keep up with his father's furious pace. "I mean, he's so young!"

"It would allow him to grow more dangerous until he strikes against us."

"We don't know he's going to strike against us." Arthur reasoned, "he's yet to do anything."

"It is enough that his people conspire to overthrow me. This is harsh, but necessary. I take no pleasure in killing the boy."

"Then spare him, for Morgana's sake." He appealed. 'C'mon,' he thought, 'you care about her. You don't want to upset her.' Aloud, he continued, :She's clearly grown attached to the boy and if you execute him, I fear she will never forgive you."

Uther whirled around. "I do not seek her forgiveness! She has betrayed me!"

Arthur glanced away. If he said this right, maybe..."Yet you're sparing her."

"She has the promise I made her father to thank for that. The boy enjoys no such privilege. He _will_ be executed at dawn. Is that clear?"

Arthur ground his teeth together. Well, crap. Now what? As he started off, his father's footsteps already fading into the distance, his eye caught on a puddle of spilled wine in the courtyard. He wouldn't be surprised if the mess was a result of his own manservant's handiwork. Regardless, it made him think. The hand not resting on his sword hilt came up to fiddle with his necklace. Perhaps...perhaps there was still something he could do.

He headed back to the privacy of his chambers, ready to put a plan into motion. He couldn't do this alone, not and get the boy out unscathed.

Morgana was waiting for him in his chambers with Merlin and Gwen at her side. Arthur cocked an eyebrow. "You don't believe this boy's execution is right," the king's ward began.

"I don't believe that a lot of things are right." He stripped off his coat - really, two servants and neither could be bothered to do their job? - and dropped it onto a chair. "You're lucky he's not executing you, Morgana."

"Arthur, you have to help him! He's just a boy!"

Arthur raised a hand, cutting her off. "You can't do anything for him now, Morgana. he's been caught and he won't be able to escape. I suggest you go find yourself a distraction."

Morgana glared. "I thought you were a better man than this, Arthur Pendragon."

"And you were wrong. How lovely," he said cheerfully. "Now leave, Morgana. I have work to do." The three of them leveled him with betrayed looks, but Arthur resolutely ignored them. He couldn't have them getting involved and implicating themselves. "Don't try to set the boy free, Morgana. The kind has stood your betrayal once. He won't again."

She let out a frustrated huff, stomping away with Merlin and Gwen at her heels.

"I don't understand," he heard Merlin say as he poured water into a porcelain basin and drew out his necklace again. "Arthur cares about people. Surely he won't just let a child die."

"Apparently he will." Morgana hissed vehemently and Arthur began chanting in a foreign tongue.

\--

Morning dawned with no sleep obtained on anyone's part. Arthur was hardly surprised when Merlin failed to arrive to attend to him. Merlin wouldn't be forgiving him for a long time to come.

Arthur sighed and pulled his clothes on himself, striding out to the courtyard without breakfast. There was a stand set up and the executioner was already lounging against it, his ax glinting in the first rays of sunlight. Uther stood above the small gathered crowd, looking down on them all with disdain. "Today we witness the execution of another sorcerer!" He declared and the boy was brought out in chains. The crown tittered as the guards positioned the child's head on the cutting block. Now was the time.

"Wait!" Arthur shouted, his voice carrying over everyone else's. He walked forward to stand before his father, next to the boy.

"What is the meaning of this?" Uther raged. Morgana stood at his arm, no doubt having been attempting to talk him out of it, but now she just stood there, gaping at him.

"He's my son." Arthur articulated clearly. Immediately, a clamor broke out. Uther stared at him, eyes wide and lips white with fury.

"Guards, bring the prince and the boy to the throne room." Uther ordered, turning on his heel. Arthur saw Morgana scrambling after him before the guards took him by the shoulders and led him off.

The boy was dragged along next to him, clear blue eyes staring up at him in blatant awe. Arthur offered an apologetic smile. He knew this was an awful way for it all to be revealed, but he had no choice.

"Arthur, what the devil is going on here?" Uther demanded as soon as they entered the throne room. His advisors had already gathered, all giving him looks of shock and distrust/ Gaius's eyebrow was cocked higher than he'd ever seen it and Merlin and Gwen, positioned slightly behind the physician, just gazed at him.

Arthur stared determinedly ahead. "It is as I have said, My Lord. This druid boy is my son."

"You would've had to have been - "

"Twelve years old, yes." Arthur nodded.

"He looks nothing like you!"

"But extraordinarily like his mother. She, by the way, is Queen of the Old Religion." The throne room was silent. In his peripheral vision, Arthur could see Merlin mouthing 'there's a queen?' to Gaius, and he allowed a small smile to tug on his lips. "Do you remember when I was twelve, Father? The nation was riddled with famine. You chased the sorcerers unrelentingly and purged the land of magic and the land was dying. It _needs_ magic to live, but you'd betrayed an oath with the land and the land was dying. The Queen offered me a way to save it.

"The king and the land must be bound for the land to prosper. I am no king, was no king, but you'd already broken that bond with Nimueh. In order to save it, a child was born with enough power to maintain the land. Kill this child and you kill yourself."

"This is ridiculous! No such bond exists or is required! Kings rule by right of bloodline, not by connection to the land." Uther spit out through clenched teeth.

"Really? Then your grandfather didn't come into power through a marriage to the High Priestess? A king can't rule without his people's support, Father, and a king who cannot support his people does not remain in power. The land is dying under your onslaught. It is only because of Mordred that there remains fertile land."

"Mordred? That's the boy's name, then?" Uther growled. "You lay with my enemies and now you ask freedom for this boy? What would you have me do, Arthur, open this kingdom to attack?"

"I have committed treason by consorting with your enemies. Punish me. But if you hurt the boy, you are the one who loses. Are you so afraid of magic, Father, that you would let your people die? Everyone here, everyone in all of Camelot, owes their loves to Mordred. Do not repay that by slaughtering him and killing the land."

Uther glared. "Take them to the dungeons. Allow no one to visit them." He turned away, his advisors already flocking forward to give their tuppence.

\--

"I'm sorry," Arthur murmured through the wooden bars separating their cells. The boy stared at him, saying nothing. Arthur was beginning to wonder if he even could speak. "You will be set free." Arthur said, checking that the guards weren't listening in. "The Queen, your mother, will be here soon to break you out. She'll keep you safe, I promise. I know my promise probably isn't worth much to you, but..." He trailed off. Mordred still didn't say anything and Arthur slumped against the wall in disappointment. "I'm sorry you had to find out like that," he whispered. "So sorry."


End file.
